Measurement of seabed topography by multibeam sonar using CFFT

A precise ocean bottom map for ocean surveying and dredging is desired. Especially in dredging, it is essential to know the seabed topography in real time without being affected by scatterers (for example floating sand and mud) in the seawater during work. To meet these requirements, the multi-narrow-beam sonar system (MBSS) has been developed. The MBSS forms beams with the use of the complex fast Fourier transform (CFFT) algorithm. In the MBSS, arithmetic mean processing is employed to eliminate echo from scatterers and the measurement error due to the oblique incident angle is reduced by peak value detection processing. By using these processes, an ocean bottom map can be accurately obtained. It is both theoretically and experimentally shown that the distribution of echo intensity from scatterers is approximated by the Rayleigh probability density function. The arithmetic mean of four to eight successively received echoes from scatterers reduces the variance of the echo intensity distribution by 6 to 12 dB.